How Do You Show a Text Message in a Film?

Not too long ago I was asked to read a script, and when I finished I had one question: what year was this script set in? I wondered because the whole script revolved around people in different cities being completely unable to communicate with each other, to know what was going on in each other’s lives. Yep, this present-day film took place in a world where mobile phones had not been invented.

You’d be surprised at how often screenwriters ignore today’s modern means of communication. And not just phones — in order to be truly contemporary, filmmakers must incorporate text messaging into their movies. But how to do that creatively?

Here, with some answers, is Tony Zhou, whose latest short film looks at the innovative — and not so innovative — ways filmmakers are visualizing the sending and receiving of text messages. Watch as he pulls examples from House of Cards, Sherlock, and browser-based films like Noah before blasting into the future of SMS-on-screen, a world still open for exploration.

Jason

you left out Fault in our stars, who did it really well.

theAC

It showed up, just not explained, demonstrated, or analyzed.

Eric Scoles

in the forward to a relatively recent edition of Neuromancer, Gibson paints a picture of young readers who are puzzled about why there are no cell phones in the future….

not new… think text was used over film in Mission Impossible series ages ago and probably in a half dozen other television series in past. Probably even the Man from UNCLE and every other spy or crime series used it at some point.